Welcome to the Rifle Brigade web pages.

Although the Rifle Brigade lives on in the present day Royal Green Jackets, it is already over thirty-five years since its title passed into history. Inevitably the memory of some of the details of its history and traditions are becoming a little dimmed. The purpose of these pages is to provide ex members of the Rifle Brigade, historians and researchers with factual information on one of the most famous regiments in the British Army. It might also provide a reference of interest to today's Riflemen.

It goes without saying that what follows in these pages is a mere resume`, whilst being  an indication of the full history, so well portrayed in the extensive literature of the Regiment illustrated in the Museum. Information is available on request through these pages to those who have need of it. In order to support the many  financial needs of the Museum such requests for information on regimental history will require a small research fee.

The determination to be outstanding was always present but not necessarily to draw public attention to the fact. Whilst it has been said that it was a principle of the Regiment to do everything that was necessary and nothing that was not, this is not a complete statement of the matter. Rather was it a case of doing everything as well as possible but avoiding too much time spent on non-essentials, which obscured the real objective.

Whilst encouragement rather than harshness was the order of the day and there was no fear of genuine friendship between ranks, softness was not present. High standards were applied in a wholly professional way. While the Regiment paid some penalty from the extent to which its talented members tended to be spread across the Army as a whole, this very dispersion provided a basis for its leading members to make comparisons with others and to apply the lessons accordingly. On any basis of assessment, the Rifle Brigade was out of, and above, the ordinary. It was one of the great infantry regiments of the British Army throughout the two centuries in which its name existed.